The following is a guest post by the Portugalist.
Lisbon is a city that’s hot on everyone’s itineraries, and it’s easy to see why. It’s affordable, the weather is normally fantastic, and the people are incredibly welcoming.
There are so many things to do in Lisbon, Portugal, as well. Maybe there’s even a little too much. A complete list of the top things to do in Lisbon would span several pages, but this list is a little more compact and features 10 of the very best things.
Ten years ago, several months before this blog even existed, I went on my first trip overseas. With absolutely zero stamps in my brand new passport and having never traveled solo before in my life, you could say that international travel was a new experience for me.
Looking back now, after having traveled for many years in 70+ countries, filling my passport a few times over in the process, I can say that I’ve grown a lot as a traveler.
But for that very first trip, I was clueless and a little bit terrified. With limited time and a modest budget, I decided to go for it all and book a guided tour. One that would end up changing the course of my life forever.
It was with Contiki tours. Europe was in my sights.
After returning from our Spain honeymoon, we had one question more than all others: just how much did it cost?
Well, we are not afraid to let the world know that we spent just about $5,885 for our 15-day luxury honeymoon in Spain, or about $392/day.
While that number is high, as Spain is known for being relatively inexpensive for the budget traveler, keep in mind the fact that we went all out in nearly every aspect of the honeymoon with little regard to prices.
Spain was actually our chosen destination for this very reason as we’d much rather spend more money in a cheaper destination doing everything we wanted to rather than skimping in a more expensive destination just to get by within a manageable budget.
But like all things on this site, we kept a record of our spending. Yes, even on our honeymoon we still worked to log every penny spent to give you a complete idea on what it would be like to travel the way we do.
Of course, as this trip was our honeymoon and is the opposite of what most people consider for budget or long-term travel, we’ll do our best to highlight the reasons why our number was significantly higher than what should be required.
If there is one thing I do not like to do when going on a long-term trip, it is making reservations more than a week in advance. The freedom of being able to travel for months on end is something that allows us to be completely flexible with our itinerary, extending or decreasing stays in an given city at our discretion.
When going on our next 14-18 month trip, we were overjoyed with the fact that we would not have to plan very much in advance and could roam on our idealized itinerary. Then we added Europe into the mix. In the summer. After counting the number of days we were hoping to spend on the continent, we realized that we were getting dangerously close to the 90 day visa limit for the Schengen Area while also having to combat the hoards of travelers during peak season. Just like that our hopes for a reservation free long-term trip came crashing down. To lock in the good deals in peak season, and to force us to fit within the 90 day Schengen visa limit, our bookings began and thousands of dollars were spent.
The logic of booking in advance during peak season is obvious. But the need to craft our itinerary to fit within the limits of a free Schengen visa may not be as apparent.